Ga. bank robber nabbed while waiting for getaway bus

DeKALD, Ga. — The bank heist went badly enough. The getaway was worse.

After botching a bank robbery in Sandy Springs and ditching the money, police said a would-be robber was caught flat-footed — waiting for a MARTA bus.

"That just wasn't too bright," police spokesman Lt. Steve Rose said of the 22-year-old woman, who has been charged with robbery.

Channel Monae Gaskin admitted to robbing the Wachovia Bank at 8721 Roswell Road after being arrested at a nearby bus stop, police said.

Gaskin went into the bank shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday and demanded money, police said. She didn't show a weapon.

After being handed a bag of cash, she ran across a parking lot to a Quizno's restaurant, where a dye bomb exploded orange ink on her and the money, according to police.

"She left the Quizno's and tried to stash her dye-covered clothes and the money in a women's bathroom in the Publix nearby," Rose said.

Gaskin apparently changed clothes and went to the bus stop at Dunwoody Place and Hope Road, just behind the grocery store, he said. A police officer saw Gaskin waiting for a bus and apprehended her.

What made her think she could escape on public transportation? She had done it once before, the woman allegedly told police. She said that on Jan. 15 she robbed a Wachovia branch bank in DeKalb County, then hopped on a MARTA bus, police said.

The woman was taken Wednesday to the Fulton County Jail and likely will be turned over to DeKalb police and charged with the Jan. 15 heist, police said.

The Sandy Springs bank branch is no stranger to bumbling bandits, Rose said.

"Another lady blew a robbery at the same place," he said of a 2006 incident. The would-be robber put a black bag and a white bag on the counter, and had the teller load all the money into the white bag, Rose said. "She took off with the black bag."